as required.
Accordingly, a powerful "camel" was hastily improvised, by the aid of
which the two vessels were dragged across the bar. Hardly had the
second brig made the passage in safety, when the British fleet
appeared in the offing. Tradition says that the opportune absence of
the enemy's fleet was caused by a public banquet to which the citizens
of Port Dover had invited Commodore Barclay and his officers. While
the dinner was going merrily on, the Americans were hard at work,
escaping from the trap in which the British had left them. In
responding to a toast at the banquet, Barclay said, "I expect to find
the Yankee brigs hard and fast on the bar at Erie when I return, in
which predicament it will be but a small job to destroy them." His
anticipations were not realized; for, on his arrival, he found the
entire squadron safely floating in the deep water outside the bar.

Had Barclay but known it, he would even then have found it "but a
small job to destroy them;" for the two brigs, having been stripped of
their ordnance, would have been easy prey for the British squadron.
But Perry's bold action in sending forward two schooners to engage the
enemy seemed to alarm the too prudent commodore; and the British bore
away, and were soon out of sight.

By night Perry's flotilla was in readiness for cruising, and set out
immediately in pursuit of the foe. Barclay seemed to avoid the
conflict; and, after some weeks' cruising, the Americans cast anchor
at Put-in-Bay, and awaited there the appearance of the enemy.

The little flotilla that lay anchored on the placid waters of the
picturesque bay consisted of nine vessels, ranging in size from the
"Trippe," a puny sloop carrying one gun, to the "Lawrence" and
"Niagara," brigs carrying each two long twelves and eighteen short
thirty-twos. No very formidable armada was that of a handful of pygmy
vessels, commanded by a young officer who had never heard the
thunderous cannonade of a naval battle, or seen the decks of his ships
stained with the blood of friends and daily companions. Yet the work
of the little squadron saved the United States from invasion, won for
the young commander a never-dying fame, and clothed the vine-clad
hills, the pebbly beaches, and the crystal waters of Put-in-Bay with a
wealth of proud, historical associations.

[Illustration: Drilling The Raw Recruits.]

Day after day the vessels lay idly at their anchorage, and the sailors
grew restless at the lo